Hurricane AC Unit Damage Florida Claim Guide.

Hurricane AC Unit Damage. Outdoor AC compressor damaged by flying debris or saltwater intrusion.

The disconnect is the answer and I would lead with it.

A disconnect box does not tear off a wall from age. It does not tear off from lack of maintenance. It comes off because something applied external physical force to it. Once that is established, the mechanical breakdown theory has to explain why an aging compressor also ripped the electrical disconnect off the exterior wall on the same afternoon, and it cannot.

The fin field, photographed with a straightedge laid across it so the flattening is measurable rather than impressionistic, and photographed on all four sides. Wind damage has a directional bias. Age does not.

An HVAC contractor's written diagnostic, and this is the document that matters most: pressure test results, refrigerant charge, coil integrity, amp draw, and a written opinion on cause. Not an estimate. A diagnostic.

Then proof it worked. The unit ran the day before, which is a fact with evidence behind it. Utility consumption for the prior months. Runtime logs from a smart thermostat if there is one, which is the cleanest proof of function anybody has ever handed me. Service records showing maintenance, which also kills the neglect half of their sentence.

One technical point worth making in the letter. A flattened fin field is not cosmetic. Fins are the heat transfer surface. Restrict the airflow across them and head pressure rises, and elevated head pressure is what kills compressors. A unit that still turns on with a crushed coil is a unit that is failing, on a schedule, because of the storm.

Six years old, with records, worked the day before. That is a storm loss.

The fight is over one word in their own exclusion, and the word is artificially.

Lightning is a named peril in essentially every homeowner's form. It is also, self-evidently, not artificially generated. The artificially generated electrical current exclusion is aimed at man-made events: arcing within an appliance, a short circuit inside the insured equipment, switching surges from the utility. Most forms exclude the damage to the equipment that generated the current while covering ensuing loss. Reading that exclusion to swallow a lightning claim reads the named peril out of the policy.

Lightning detection data. Strike location and time data for the coordinates of the property is commercially available, it is used in litigation, and it either puts a discharge near the house at the relevant moment or it does not. On a claim this size it is worth buying, and it is the single most persuasive document available.

— Eli Goins, Florida licensed public adjuster #P159790. Ocean Point Claims Company (FL DFS #W829547).

If your hurricane ac unit damage claim is delayed, underpaid, or denied, a licensed Florida public adjuster can review at no cost. FS 626.854 and Homeowner Bill of Rights govern your rights.